Maggie stared at him for a long time before the perfect smile on her face finally disappeared.
“Father, I have believed in God since birth. How can you say that I should ‘believe in God’?”
She countered with a question.
Maggie certainly needs more manpower and resources to wipe out the demons' strongholds, but that doesn't mean she should promise the priest for support.
She wasn't without other options.
As for faith in deities...
It was absolutely impossible for her, and she had no intention of becoming the dictator of the entire Temple of Light, so she was not interested in the generous conditions offered by the priest.
After hearing Maggie's evasive words, the priest finally fell silent.
He knew that Maggie was rejecting his suggestion, but she did so in a polite way, without escalating the situation.
The stalemate lasted so long that the noon bells seemed to bring the priest back to his senses.
"Since Your Highness has said so, then I will not insist any further."
The priest let out a soft sigh, whether from disappointment or sadness, it was unclear.
But being a shrewd person who had lived for decades, he maintained a basic level of decorum with Maggie and didn't say too many outrageous things.
"Um."
Maggie nodded slightly in agreement, then strode forward, brushing past Father Barton without stopping.
Just like she discarded power without hesitation, she never coveted it.
However, just as Maggie's figure was about to disappear at the end of the corridor, Father Barton's aged voice rang out again, sounding like a compromise or a lament.
"Your Highness, the priest and nun are hereby lent to you. If you wish to change your mind, you may come to me at any time."
His words made Maggie pause, and after a long while, she finally answered.
"Thank you, Father."
After saying that, Maggie turned the corner and disappeared completely.
Although she was somewhat surprised by what the priest said later, upon closer reflection, it was not incomprehensible. She was currently targeting the unfathomable Zephnea family and was short of manpower at the time.
At this point, the priest could choose whether to help her or not. Helping her would be like providing timely assistance, while not helping would be like standing idly by.
His request could be considered a form of taking advantage of someone's misfortune, but in the end he still chose to lend her his manpower unconditionally.
Who made Maggie's actions truly righteous and in accordance with the faith of the God of Light?
Even the priest, for the sake of his principles, eventually compromised with her.
Maggie thought.
A seasoned priest, with just a little understanding of the intelligence she had gathered during this period, would know that the Duke's mansion harbored unfathomable darkness, something even the temple would have to think twice about.
In the original comic, the main characters only killed a minor boss who was probably a duke, but what she has to do now is to uproot the minions of the abyss and the demons.
On the other side, Father Barton stared in the direction Maggie had left, his gaze lingering for a long time. It was unclear how long it took before he lowered his wrinkled eyes, lost in thought.
Perhaps it was a lament for the future of the temple, or perhaps it was a regret for Maggie's choice.
But even if Maggie saw all of this, she wouldn't care.
Life is but a passing journey, nothing more than that.
...
Maggie returned to her room, the priest's words still lingering in her mind.
Was I being too obvious?
After closing the door, Maggie muttered to herself, her feelings indescribable.
I don’t know when the priest began to doubt that he didn’t believe in the God of Light at all, but she clearly made every effort to complete the daily tasks of the Holy Maiden of Light.
The statue of the God of Light should be sufficiently respectful and should not have any flaws.
"Is this the sixth sense of a Holy Spirit-level believer?"
Maggie really can't understand it.
But she quickly put the issue out of her mind; it was just a trivial matter. As long as she didn't admit it, there was no evidence against her.
The priest can think whatever he wants.
She stepped forward, opened the window a crack, and the white dove that had been standing in front of her window for who knows how long finally delivered the letter to her.
In fact, the messenger dove had arrived long ago, and Maggie happened to see it from the sky.
Maggie wanted to come back early to open the letter, but the priest stopped her.
Maggie untied the letter from the pigeon's leg, put the pigeon back in its cage, and then began to read the letter carefully.
She gave the Beard royal family two tasks: one was to search for evidence of the slave trade behind the scenes at the Duke's mansion, and the other was to help her find any suspicious persons connected to the Royal Library.
Fortunately, the Beard royal family handled both matters very well.
Or rather, it should be said that Emperor Asa did a very good job.
The court magician arrived at Clay Mountain first and took away a large portion of the evidence, leaving only some that were too difficult to carry with him.
The letter said that the Duke's people arrived shortly afterward, and a fierce conflict broke out.
The court magicians suffered many casualties, but Eve, who was very worried about the matter, volunteered to go on the mission. She was an excellent water magician.
Using the river in the mountains, they fled all the way down to the foot of Clay Mountain, taking the evidence with them.
Upon discovering that the evidence had been taken, the men sent by the Duke's mansion stopped arguing with the court magician and instead prepared to pursue and capture Eve.
The situation was extremely urgent along the way, but Eve eventually made it back to the palace.
The Duke's men couldn't force their way into the palace, so they had no choice but to give up.
But they did not really give up, and tried several times to send an inside agent in the palace to find the location of the hidden evidence and destroy it.
What the Duke's mansion didn't know was that Eve had only been in the palace for a few tens of minutes before she boarded the carriage with the evidence.
Disguised as a commoner, they rushed to the temple with the evidence.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, five days later, Maggie will be able to receive Princess Eve, who has rushed over with evidence, at the temple.
"..."
After reading the letter, Maggie fell into deep thought.
I never expected Eve to get involved in something so dangerous, and she even personally escorted the evidence to the temple in a carriage. Sure enough...
She's grown up!
For some reason, Maggie was actually a little touched.
The lovestruck little princess from the original story who activated the necromancy circle and almost turned the Kingdom of Saint Na into a land of the dead has now become so sensible.
There was another letter under this letter, which contained information about the 'misprinted general history of the mainland'.
Maggie read it carefully, and then froze.
Because it says that the only person Maggie might suspect is actually the master of ceremonies who greeted her when she arrived in the Kingdom of Saint-Navi—Mandel.
No wonder... I ran into him inexplicably in the library back then.
Looking back now, it seems rather deliberate that a master of ceremonies, at such a crucial moment in dealing with a traitor, would not be by His Majesty's side but instead appear next to the library.
At the time, she didn't think about it at all, or rather, she didn't have any reason to speculate about him.
Because in Maggie's eyes, the Master of Ceremonies and the Royal Library were people who had absolutely nothing to do with each other.
Maggie's fingers unconsciously rubbed the letter paper. After a while, she pulled back the previous sheet of paper, quickly scanned its contents, and a wicked smile suddenly appeared on her lips.
"But now that we have the evidence, we can move on to the next step of the plan tomorrow."
"Father, a new round of confrontation is about to begin. I hope you can handle it."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com